I still had my adrenaline pumping and walked back down the stairwell to get to the ground level and back outside in the training area. It seemed like most of the first years had thinned out at this point, as me being in the ‘S’s’ marked the last section of students.

  I did not see John in the bleachers nor standing around anywhere, so I figured I would head to the cafeteria to see if he was there. Looking at my Interface, it showed 12:30pm, it was almost near the end of Lunch.

  If I wanted to get food before dinner, I should head to the cafeteria. “Maybe John is there…” I thought as I headed that way.

  Before taking the next turn in the building towards the cafeteria, I saw a slate and wondered if the instructors had updated any information on the classes or any other notes they might have for us. I looked at it and it showed:

  CLASSES:

  MAP:

  TEAMS:

  ROOMS:

  As I navigated to CLASSES, it still just showed the evaluations at 9:00am and nothing else, so it might still be a few hours until the information was imputed and all updated.

  The cafeteria was the least crowded it had been up until this point. I looked around and didn’t notice John. Even though it had only been a day or so since we got here, I knew I was going to need to make more friends, but I just didn’t feel like I had it in me to initiate conversations or anything right now.

  I moved along the short line and it was my turn to choose if I wanted the hearty stew they had in a regular bowl or a bread bowl. I felt pretty hungry, so I went with the bread bowl. Looking at the stew, it seemed to have carrots, beef and onions. “I hope the meat isn’t overcooked, nothing is worse than beef that is harder to chew than leather…” I thought, walking mindlessly to an open spot at a table. As I was about to sit down, I noticed a familiar blonde head of hair two tables over and went to sit next to John.

  As I sat, I noticed two others next to him. “Jude!” John exclaimed, excited to see me, “this is Duncan and Laura. We met after the eval and hit it off well enough. They both finished right after me and they’re from a smaller town too!”

  “Nice to meet you. As you probably gathered from John shouting my name, I’m Jude.” I said with a nod and small smile before sitting down next to John. I was glad I found John, but I also kind of just felt like eating and being quiet. Luckily, Duncan and Laura were pretty chatty.

  “I still can’t believe you actually left a mark on that third year! I would not want to be on the receiving end of that swing of yours John.” Duncan said with a big grin, “My ability allows me to leave a few very quick slashes, but that swing… It really is something.”

  Laura peeped up at that, “Yeah, John’s was impressive, but did you see my Fire Fang? It had a couple of our instructors raising their eyebrows. I don’t think they expected me to be able to change the direction of it and to activate it so quickly in succession.” she said.

  “Ha, they probably raised their eyebrows because they didn’t want them to get singed from your little embers you threw out.” Duncan said with a devious smile, goading Laura to react.

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  She did and shouted, “You know they weren’t just embers! I had some of the most impressive flames that I saw from any of the other students…” She said with a harumph, crossing her arms and looking a bit upset.

  “Now, now.” John said, trying to placate them both, “No need to take jabs at one another. Each of our abilities are special in their own right and this is all just a taste before we really see what we get when we reach Level 10.”

  Level 10, the true short term and realistic goal for the first year of awakening. Jude began to fantasize about what his ability would change to and what his second ability would be and became so engrossed with his thoughts that he didn’t hear the question from Duncan.

  “Hello? Jude? Your name was Jude, right?” Duncan said waving his hands near my face.

  “Sorry.” I said, coming out of my own thoughts, “what did you ask?”

  “How did the evaluation go for you? You went after an hour or so had gone by and we had got chatting with others near the obstacle course after our evals were done.”

  “Better than I had hoped. They had me use my ability in a few ways that were new to me, but obvious after I tried them. It actually got me excited for the classes. I really can’t wait to see how I’ll be able to fit in. It is definitely more of a utility ability, but it is not as simple as I thought it was.” I said, saying more than I had intended.

  “Utility ability, eh?” Laura said, coming out of her pouting, “I bet it wouldn’t even hold up to one activation of my Fire Fang.”

  “You’d be surprised. Jude’s barriers can block a Power Swing of mine.” John said, shooting a thumbs up at Jude.

  “Well, we should probably get going. We’ve already been eating and chatting for over an hour and a half. I want to see if the classes were assigned yet.” Duncan said, gesturing to Laura. She nodded and and they both waved goodbye and left.

  “Well, what did you think?” John asked Jude, “Did you like ‘em?”

  “They were fine, they definitely seemed like they got along with you. I feel like I just kinda killed the conversation.” I said, looking down at my food. My bread bowl was starting to get a bit soggy, so I took a bite and there was a silence that came over John and I.

  “Jude, you are going to need to make friends besides just me. I know we are early on in the year and I’ll always be here for you, but chances are, our classes are going to be different and are probably going to be placed on different teams.” John said.

  “Are you trying to get rid of me already?” I asked, half joking, half truthfully with a forced smile.

  “Of course not Jude, you are my best friend, but I know there are so many great people here too. This is the start of us almost becoming adults. Our parents aren’t here, nobody we know is here besides you and I. I don’t want to waste the opportunity we have here.” John said.

  “Yeah, you’re right. I think I am just so focused on my thoughts and thinking about how things will be before seeing what is actually going to happen with these next few weeks and over this first year. Thanks John.”

  “You got it, we should call each other the ‘Briar Boys’ or something. Briar Boys stay strong!” John said with a goofy grin.

  “Uh, no. We are not going by the ‘Briar Boys’. But I am glad that I have someone here I can call a friend.” I said.

  I ate the rest of my now cold soup and soggy bread before leaving the cafeteria with John to check and see if the slate was updated with our classes. Evaluations had to be done by now. We headed towards the hallway leading to the stairwell to go to our rooms. Once on our floor, we checked the slate.

  I checked CLASSES:

  9:00am Introduction to the Interface, Room 101

  10:00am Mage Ability Exploration, Room 204

  1:00pm Physical Training, Outer Courtyard #4

  3:00pm Introduction to Monsters, Room 307

  “Well, it looks like the classes did update. I am curious which instructors will be teaching which.” I said as John looked at his own.”

  It turned out that we both had the same 9:00am and 3:00pm classes, Introduction to the Interface and Introduction to Monsters together, so that was nice, but he had a Warrior Ability Exploration and different physical training location for his 1:00pm.

  I was secretly very relieved to have some classes still in common, but also excited to have a few that would be just for me. I knew what John had said at lunch about needing to make more friends was true and that I needed to make an effort, especially with some of these other Mages I’d be spending my time with.

  John and I hi-fived and headed back to our rooms. Facing me was still that same pile of laundry, but the bed was already calling to me and the evaluation really had taken a lot out of me. I laid down for just a quick nap, which turned into a long sleep, leaving the cursed pile of laundry left in the corner.